JENOVA chrONicLEs
by White Grandpa
Summary: Cloud regains his soul after ten years of being a monster. Will his old friends join him once again in a battle with his old foe?


_So…__ This has been a story in my head from a long, long time ago.  I wasn't even gonna try to work on it for a long time, but with the release of Advent Children coming up faster and faster, I figured I'd better post at least some of it before my whole creative process becomes defunct.  I know its not really that great.  This is more for me than anyone else, but if you dig it, then rock on.  I own none of these characters… unless there are some originals in there.  Maybe one or two.  Rest of the credit goes to Tetsuya Nomura and Square-Enix.  Enjoy… hopefully._

It all just happened one day, there's really no other way to describe it.

Yeah, yeah, I know.  That's a horrible way to start a story, but that's the way it went.  I mean, how do you describe being born?  How do you describe your first love?  These things disappear from your mind the moment after they happen, and they are things that you can never go back to reclaim.  What's happened has happened, and that's the way that it goes.  Maybe someday, when I actually know what happened to me, maybe then I can say more.

I was reborn.  I was me again.  It had been so long since I laughed that it scared me.  So I ran.  I thought maybe something really bad was happening, and I couldn't stand it if I hurt my companions.  Its like what Vincent does, he'll just take off for a week sometimes.  We don't follow him, we just let him be and take care of each other for a while.  They won't follow me, especially here.

Midla.  I didn't really know why I came here, just some strange pulling.  It's a small town on the southern continent outside the borders of Mideel.  I decided to set up camp about a mile outside.  I'd found a little rock awning in the side of a cave that made some nice shelter.  Judging by my condition, I wanted to stay pretty far away from people, in case I lost it in my sleep.  It wouldn't be the first time.  I wanted to find out what was up with the town, but I needed to keep my distance.

For a week or so I never got closer to the town.  Curiosity drew me in, but I fought it off.  I'd find myself beginning to walk towards it when I went to the river to take a bath, but regained control of my feet and went in the right direction.  For seven days I lived off the meat of the animals I hunted, and drank and bathed in the river's water, and all the while I could feel myself transforming.  

It wasn't a physical transformation, but something deep in my bones.  No, passed the bones into the depths of my unconscious and to my soul.  I found myself enjoying the sun, splashing in the water, and laughing out loud at every little thing.  I went into hysterics at the mere sight of a chocobo, suddenly realizing what ridiculous creatures they really are.  I may as well had ridden a seven foot tall chicken half way around the world.

But I also felt grief like I hadn't since I held Aerith in my arms.  I wept for her, and for my lost friends, I wept for Midgar and Lucretia and Vincent and Yuffie.  I was weeping as much as I was laughing.  I was laughing and weeping at the same time.  It scared me and filled me with joy.  After all, I had ten years of emotion to catch up with.  

So like I said, one day I woke up and I was me again.  It was a few weeks before I felt secure, but when I did, I was more stable than I'd felt in 15 years.  I headed out for the town with my bag and my sword, and left everything else behind under the cliff.

It was amazing.  There were so many people and it was so beautiful.  The river I was living off of ran right through the center of the town.  The roads were paved only with cobble-stone, and the most advanced mode of transportation available was a chocobo cart that made stops to unload goods in the market.  The market seemed like a good place to stop, so I asked the chocobo driver if I could get a lift.  The boy took one look at me and was instantly scared to death.  He probably hadn't seen a freelance fighter in his whole  life.  He humbly nodded, so I hopped on.

As I rode through the town, I realized everyone was giving me those looks.  The sword scared them, but that's what its for, anyway.  But I scared them, too.  The fact that I was a newcomer, my eyes, and my clothes all probably made them think that I was hiding from my crimes in their village.  I can't say that I blame them, or that they were entirely wrong, either.  In an effort to look a bit more hospitable, I removed a few pieces of armor that I had on my shoulder, wrists, and hip and threw them in my bag.

I thanked the kid for the ride and gave him some money, but he just dropped the coins and ran.  I laughed again, I was really enjoying myself despite all the looks.  I decided that my first stop would be to get some new clothes.  I wasn't here to fight, so why not finally relax for a while?

After 40 minutes, I walked out of the shop with a brand new set of clothes.  Black slacks and nice jacket, and a good old white button up shirt.  I also grabbed some sandals from the next shop over and took off my shoes.  I thought I could really get used to this life:  living in a town, comfortable clothes on a nice sunny day.  I thought about renting a room at the inn, but figured I should collect my stuff from my camp, first.  I'd rent a room the next day.

I bought some different food.  A few apples and a pomegranate; fruits that didn't grow in the area.  I bought some soap and a razor, decided to really go all out on this 'lookin' nice' thing.

At camp that night I ate my new fruit and I shaved.  I went to bed happy and content: I couldn't wait until the next morning so I could walk through the town again.  As I was trying to fall asleep, I was thinking about what could have possibly pulled me here.  There didn't seem to be anything particularly odd about this village, though I thought it was very special.  I thought that maybe the planet was finally trying to make me happy, but I gave up on that thought when I thought of where I'd been for the past ten years.

I woke up and wasted no time in heading out to the town.  I felt nice, I smelled nice, and I looked nice… well, except for the sword.  I thought that it would give the wrong impression, so I ran over to some bushes to ditch it for a while.  It was from those bushes that I found out what was going on.

There were four of them.  The leader was in a long white coat, the other three dressed like SOLDIERs.  I shuttered at the thought that Shinra had started up the SOLDIER project again, especially after its past failures.  Mako energy what not something to be toyed with, and many SOLDIER applicants ended up with extreme mako poisoning.  It can increase one's strength five-fold, but shortens the life span by a good 20 years, in some cases.  But what disgusted me even more what the fact that they were going into the town that I had grown to love in such a short amount of time.  I dropped my bags, picked up my sword again, and walked into town straight behind them.

I stayed far enough back so that they wouldn't notice me, but everyone else did.  I got looks from everyone in town again, but these were worse.  The people in the town must have had a reason to hate Shinra, and they obviously thought that I was with them.  I followed the SOLDIERs through town until they stopped in front of an innocent looking wooden house, with a nice little picket fence.  The man in white signaled for two of the SOLDIERs to go around to the back, while he knocked on the door and kept the last SOLDIER there for the grunt-work.  I ran around the house, after I saw the men enter through the back door, listened for a sound a struggle inside.  I heard a woman yelling for Clyde and Aerith to run downstairs.  Aerith… my mind swam with possibilities, but I restrained my thoughts and instead broke a small window near the ground, and squeezed inside to the basement below.

It was dark, but I managed to pick out someone protecting what seemed like a small child in the a corner, and the two SOLDIER's closing in on them with swords drawn.  They obviously intended to capture the two; if they wanted them dead they would've been by the time I found them.  SOLDIERs have good ears, and they heard my footsteps coming up behind them.  When the first slashed, I ducked under the blade and struck his spinal chord from behind, then charged forward and, screaming, gutted the second before his eyes had a chance to adjust to the light.  After they were dead, I could do nothing but stand there.  It had been so long since I killed with emotion.  I almost started to cry, but I when I looked around and saw the little girl in the corner looking at me with fear, I remembered that I had to go.  I leapt up to the window and, after crawling through it, leapt up and pulled myself onto the roof.  I ran to the front of the house to take out the last guard, when I saw the man in white walking away quickly and angrily, and a very dazed SOLDIER hobbling behind him as fast as he could.

I was honestly taken a back to think of a housewife that could defeat a SOLDIER, so I bent of the ledge of the roof and hung my head upside down to see a beautiful woman with dark hair heading into the basement.  I stayed there for a while and tried to listen to the family's conversation, but that didn't work, since I could only hear a few words here and there: Shinra, strange man, broken window.

I sat back up and scanned my thoughts.  Though I'd only briefly seen that woman, I knew that she wasn't Aerith.  But there were things about this house: the name Aeirth, the woman who defeated a SOLDIER, Shinra's investigations.  I wanted to keep an eye on the house in case they needed any more help, so I leapt from the roof, and quickly walked over to a tree with some sturdy branches.  I climbed up there and got in a position that I could say in for a long time.  My watch of the house started off pretty slow.  No one exited or entered the place all day, but by dusk I was very surprised to see the SOLDIER and the man in the white coat coming back.  This time, I thought I'd wait it out and watch, since the woman inside obviously knew how to take care of herself.  While in the tree, I got a much better look at the man in white.  His coat was long, and almost dragged along behind him.  He had flaming orange hair, and what looked to be a scarred, disfigured face, but there was no question about who the owner of the scars must have been.  President Rufus was alive.

He went up and knocked on the door much the same as the time earlier that day, but this time he was much angrier.  As soon the woman opened the door, he pulled out a pistol, but before he could fire her foot knocked it away from his hand and into the bushes.  Then she punched Rufus in the face and kicked the SOLDIER twice in the stomach before stepping into the light.  It was Tifa, but not as I remembered her.  She could still fight, obviously, but she looked so much different.  He hair was much shorter then: shoulder length, but still the deep, hypnotic brown that it always was.  She was wearing long pants, and a cool button up shirt.  It was a light blue, periwinkle, maybe?  She shot daggers at Rufus and yelled, "I don't _know_ who did it, but leave my family alone!"

Tifa walked back into her house to her family… her family.  Rufus calmly stood, retrieved his firearm, and walked away with his SOLDIER, once again, limping in tow.  I wanted to go down there, but I couldn't.  I didn't know what to say, I didn't know how she'd react.

I walked back to my camp and fell asleep.


End file.
